March 19, 2013

Adobe & Maxon announce an alliance

“Today,” writes After Effects PM Steve Forde, “Adobe announced it is entering into a strategic alliance with MAXON, the makers of CINEMA 4D.” He goes on to hint at future integration:

“Do what you know, and be the best at it.” Hand in hand with this idea means that you DON’T do a whole lot of stuff you don’t know. With this relationship announcement you have two companies who focus on being the very best at what they do…

I wish could go into more detail right now – but stay tuned. This area is about to get very exciting.

See also the Maxon announcement which says, “As part of the alliance, both companies are expected to collaborate and engineer a pipeline between Adobe® After Effects® software and CINEMA 4D to give users a seamless 2D/3D foundation.”

Photoshop CS6 by the numbers

The team celebrates reaching 5 million Facebook fans via this little 1-minute video. (The 601 cases of beer sounds about right, but I can’t believe they omitted a stat about all the Don Julio consumption.)

“You are selling people *themselves*”

Apropos of the “holes-not-drills” example (focusing on customer goals), I liked this bit of advice from CopyHackers.com. It meshes exactly with what I say about Instagram, Paper, and other apps making people look cool and even feel loved. And it reminds me of the coarse but candid promise I heard back when my team was building the Gucci.com Web site: “This shirt will get you laid.”

You are not selling a product…

…You are selling every visitor to your site the chance to see a better reflection in the mirror.

SalesForce isn’t selling me a CRM. They’re selling me a more organized, more professional version of myself. They’re selling me a future of profiting from well-managed relationships, which is what I want.

DonorsChoose isn’t “selling” me a way to support schools. They’re selling me a more giving, more community-minded version of myself. They’re selling me the chance to influence the next generation, which is what I want.